Small, brown and infinitely snackable, the almond seems so inoffensive. And yet just as this latest health food is supposed to be transforming our lives, battling high cholesterol and heart attacks, it is having a ruinous effect on the planet.

The nut that frequently appears in the Bible as a symbol of fruitfulness and promise has been dubbed ‘the Devil’s nut’, pinpointed as the chief culprit in an eco-disaster that is developing in California. The so-called Golden State is increasingly turning a dirty brown colour due to a devastating drought that is in its fourth year.

Although it’s tempting to blame all those irresponsible Californians filling their huge swimming pools and watering their lawns with abandon, domestic water consumption is dwarfed by that of agriculture.

Bone dry: A Californian farmer is pictured surveying his drought-hit land in San Luis Obispo County

The state has long been one of the world’s biggest producers of fruit and vegetables — for profit-hungry farmers, its year-round sunshine more than outweighs the obvious drawback that it hardly ever rains there.

Californian farmers have been allowed to hog dwindling supplies of water, digging ever-deeper bore holes to keep the rest of us stocked up with all-year-round peaches, sweet peppers and pistachios.

RELATED ARTICLES

Share this article

And all would still have been fine if it hadn’t been for the addition of almonds.

The trouble is, global demand for the nut is soaring — as customers from David Cameron to millions of middle-class Chinese develop a passion for almond-based foods.

The Prime Minister is said to splash almond milk on his breakfast cereal and in his tea. And it almost certainly comes from California. Attracted by the huge profits being made from a crop that is hardly cheap, California farmers now satisfy 84 per cent of the world’s almond demand.

Worth £3.8 billion in 2013, almonds have become California’s second biggest agricultural commodity after milk, as demand has exploded by 1,000 per cent in a decade.

The problem is that almonds guzzle water on a monumental scale. It has been calculated that it takes 1.1 gallons of water to grow a single almond. Worse, they need water all the year round, so almond trees must be watered even when they are not producing.

Dry days: Homes with swimming pools are seen in the Palm Springs area, California, as the state enters its fourth year of severe drought

Since almond trees cover almost a million acres of California (about the size of Cornwall) — many of them on previously virgin hillsides or in areas with little or no rain — that’s a lot of H2O being sucked up to satisfy our almond craving.

In total, almonds are annually consuming 1.07 trillion gallons of water in the state — a fifth more than the entire indoor water usage of all 39 million Californians.

All of which is slightly problematic, given that two-thirds of California is classified as being in ‘extreme drought’, as the region suffers its driest conditions for 1,200 years.

U.S. government weather experts are talking about a mega-drought that could last for decades. The state’s governor, Jerry Brown, last month ordered cities and towns to slash their water consumption by at least a quarter and by as much as 35 per cent in some urban areas. Residents have been told to take shorter showers and to stop watering their lawns.

Owners of swimming pools — the icon of the California lifestyle — are being banned from filling them in some neighbourhoods.

But the governor’s decision to exempt farms from his draconian measure has infuriated voters, who quickly identified who was really to blame.

One TV station has talked about ‘almond shaming’, while the Los Angeles Times outed them as the ‘villains’ of the super-drought. Some almond farmers have tried to shift the blame. ‘The tomato growers use a lot more water than we do,’ says one, Ryon Paton, but no one believes him.

Almonds are high in potassium, calcium, vitamin E and magnesium, and are thought to reduce cholesterol and decrease hunger without leading to weight gain

The hunt is on for celebrity almond investors, amid reports that both Oprah Winfrey and former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice are making huge sums from almond farms.

Almond farmers are also fighting among themselves. Smaller growers are blaming the big companies moving into the market, saying they are growing almonds in areas that are too dry for the trees.

Because farmers have to irrigate almond trees continuously, they are using groundwater — the underground water that feeds aquifers and theoretically provides the state’s emergency reserves.

Groundwater supplies have been shrinking for decades, but the mega-rich, big almond growers can afford to sink bore holes more than 100ft to find the precious liquid.

So is the state of California, birthplace of Sixties’ hippy values, rushing to root up almond groves and rescue its corner of the planet?

Quite the opposite. In America, dollar signs are everything. A recent government survey found that 77 per cent of California almond farmers plan to plant more trees. They have the support of the state’s leaders who get vast sums in taxes from such a high-value crop.

Paul Wenger, head of the California Farm Bureau, says any talk of curbing almond growing ‘gets to be kind of un-American. It’s a free country and they have the right to do what they want’.

Unlike cows' milk, almond milk – which is made from ground nuts and water – has no cholesterol or lactose, and being a plant food, it is often consumed by vegans, vegetarians, and others forgoing dairy

California has been bingeing on water for decades, building homes in arid areas that shouldn’t be inhabited — as their owners discover when they are engulfed in bushfires. Farming is governed by the same ‘who cares’ attitude.

America has vast amounts of rich agricultural land in god-forsaken states like Iowa, but California has a Mediterranean climate that’s ideal for high-profit crops like almonds.

If Californians won’t save themselves, an obvious solution is for everyone else to stop buying their almonds. But weaning ourselves off something hailed a ‘miracle food’ could be tough. The average American snacks on 2lb of almonds a year. Britain is catching up fast.

UK almond milk sales are soaring at a rate of 70-80 per cent a year as shoppers opt for a dairy-free alternative that they believe is healthier for your heart and the perfect solution to the growing prevalence of lactose intolerance. Last year, Sainsbury’s reported its sales were up by 181 per cent year-on-year.

A study in the British Medical Journal even challenged the ‘benefit’ of dairy milk, saying it not only fails to prevent bone fractures but may double the risk of early death.

For almond milk producers there could be no better sales pitch. But do the PM and his trendy friends know it takes 23 gallons of water to produce a glass of almond milk?

The Prime Minister is said to splash almond milk on his breakfast cereal and in his tea. And it almost certainly comes from California

Nutrition experts see the almond as meeting an increasing demand for a natural, low-calorie and high-protein food that tastes more pleasant than that old health shop stalwart, soya. It’s more versatile, too — almond butter can be spread on toast like peanut butter, ground into flour and nibbled as a snack.

Nuts may have a reputation as being fattening but almond fans say they are packed with antioxidants and healthy fats that help modulate blood sugar and reduce hunger. The list of reputed benefits goes on and on.

Perhaps it is not surprising, given that almonds are mentioned in the Book of Genesis as ‘among the best of fruits’. The rod of Aaron — brother of Moses — supposedly brought forth fragrant almond flowers.

But if there’s a smell in the air in California, it is the stench of greed — as America’s most self-indulgent state pours away its fast-vanishing water to feed a global obsession with a humble nut.